The F350 Thread

[ZRX61]

Decided against the Knob Struck show in Oregon in August, but just registered for this one in Arizona:

https://southwestfordtruckshow.com/

Mates band is playing at the Sundance Saloon in Parker that weekend & some gal I used to fool around with now lives in the area so that's my weekend sorted

[ZRX61]

Discovered there was a bushing missing on the tailgate hinge a few days ago. Ordered a set of all 4 from Dorman. 3 pieces didn't fit, but the one I needed did fit.. after a bit of percussive persuasion. Which then required some adjustment of right side lock. Lock doodad is bolted to a captive nut which slipped down into the perfect position as I loosened it.

Job jobbed.

[ZRX61]

Sunny day. First cruise-in done, 2nd one later today & then show tomorrow.

[ZRX61]

HUGE project today!!

Part of the vinyl on the rear window frame was missing, you can see it top right of the window in this pic:



Today I spent a few seconds applying a piece of electrical tape to the spot:

[ZRX61]

WooT!! 14.14mpg yesterday.. & that included a couple of moments of about 80mph & one blast up to around 105 (coming off the mountains back into town last night). Was mostly cruising at 70-75mph. About 40 miles driving in town & 150 freeway miles. Tach was only over 2500rpm three times.

[ZRX61]

[ZRX61]

Been to a few shows/cruise-ins & today is oil change day.. 4.5 gallons of it. Step one is drill a hole in the old filter to drain that of 1/2gal of oil & prevent Exxon Valdez situations in the driveway.

[ZRX61]

A couple of weeks ago I sent off an oil sample from the stuff I drained out to Blackstone Labs (we also use them to take a look at the oil we drain from RR Merlins/P&W R2800's etc). Got the results today, well happy.

Blackstone1.JPG (204 KiB) Viewed 2312 times

[Cousin Jack]

This truck is getting treated like royalty. How many other normal road vehicles get their oil analysed?

[v8-powered]

We do this at work for our diesel engined trains for both lube oil and diesel fuel, tells us an awful lot.

[MingtheMerciless]

We do as well on our transformers, the debris/chemicals in the oil can tell you what's breaking down before it becomes a fault or if our dick head staff don't dry out the sample bottle properly we get multiple "iffy" high moisture content faults on equipment and requests for network crippling switch outs.

[ZRX61]

This truck is getting treated like royalty. How many other normal road vehicles get their oil analysed?

I wanted to get a base line of what's going on. It's just $40, with an extra $10 for the TBN.
Not going to go with 8,000 miles between changes, but 6,000 will work as there is still the time vs mileage aspect (it was about 15 months since the first oil change (under my ownership).
Regular (or early) oil changes are cheap insurance... ZRX11 is at 124,500 miles (approx) & still uses no oil despite having around 50% more HP than stock for the last 118,000 miles.

[ZRX61]

Checked the TP today, right rears were a bit low, the rest were within a few lbs. Now all six are back to 65psi. May make an almost discernible difference to the mpg...
Took longer to get the fucking cap back on the right rear inner than it did to do all the other tires... & that's despite changing the valve stems on the rear inners to make them more accessible. FFS.

Car show at the Palmdirt AutoMall later. Truck is spiffed up & ready to go.

[ZRX61]

Fixed something that has been bugging me... At certain angles I could see some paint correction was needed just below the upper stripe on the left side of the bed, forward of the rear wheel. Got all the gubbins out & took care of that this morning.

I also need to find a perfectly area to check cab/bed alignment... It's off by a bit, but I can fix that with some 3in dia washers to shim the mounts a tad.

[ZRX61]

Noticed one of the chicken lights wasn't working when I last drove it. Reached under the running board below the drivers door door & found the connector had fallen off.
Pushed the connector back on, light didn't come back on. Bugger

Rolled under the truck this morning to have a butchers & discovered I hadn't put the connector back on straight.

Sorted that, light now working

[Count Steer]

Noticed one of the chicken lights wasn't working when I last drove it. Reached under the running board below the drivers door door & found the connector had fallen off.
Pushed the connector back on, light didn't come back on. Bugger

Rolled under the truck this morning to have a butchers & discovered I hadn't put the connector back on straight.

Sorted that, light now working

You're a Sparky now. Get that jet ski ordered.

[ZRX61]

Cleared out the bed, scrubbed it & put everything back...

Spiffy clean bed liner to protect the sheet metal..



4x8ft varnished 3/4in ply on top of the bed liner...



Carpet on the plywood...



repacking...





Done & dusted...

[ZRX61]

New air & fuel filters this morning. Airbox has two internally threaded bolts like the old KH400 head bolts that hold it together. Took longer to get one of those threaded back on the stud than it did to do the rest of the job.

[ZRX61]

WooT!! The F350 made it into F-Series Builders Guide magazine (Issue #7, Winter '25). Just one pic in the 7 page article on the Southwest Ford Nationals truck show in Havasu back in April.
Will probably attend again in '26

[ZRX61]

I've now owned this truck 19 months (565 days), Day 564 was when I discovered the windshield washer doesn't work...